Jochen Lillich

DevOps know-how > The Monospace Mentor Practical DevOps know-how, delivered weekly. Expert commentary on recent issues, learning opportunities and reading recommendations.

My newsletter, "News From the Server Room", comes with a column on a specific topic, updates from my #DevOps membership community, and links to interesting engineering content.

Subscribe for free: monospacementor.com/devops-know-...

A homelab is a skill booster > The Monospace Mentor In her article “What’s the biggest unsolved problem within Site Reliability Engineering?”, Paige Cruz identifies a critical challenge facing our industry: how do we pass the hard-won knowledge of…

"It’s also not acceptable or sustainable or accessible in my opinion to continue to expect people set up home-labs and experiment themselves." I disagree.

monospacementor.com/2025/08/a-ho...

To insert the argument of the previous Linux shell command, press Esc, followed by a period.

There's also a useful shell variable: `mkdir my_new_directory ; cd $_`

DevOps learning community > The Monospace Mentor The Server Room is a DevOps learning community that focuses on boosting the skills and careers of its members.

Looking to advance your DevOps career? Join "The Server Room" – my community committed to professional growth and knowledge sharing. Hot seats, office hours, workshops led by experienced professionals, and lots of fun!

➜ monospacementor.com/devops-learn...

New blog post: "A homelab is a skill booster"

➜ monospacementor.com/2025/08/a-ho...

#Learning #Linux #Skills

📖 Interesting read: "Event sourcing for smooth brains: building a basic event-driven system in Rails"

boringrails.com/articles/eve...

#ruby

DevOps know-how > The Monospace Mentor Practical DevOps know-how, delivered weekly. Expert commentary on recent issues, learning opportunities and reading recommendations.

Is growing your Dev/Ops skills important to you? My no-fluff newsletter has my “Mentor Monologue” column, news from my #DevOps membership community, and a bunch of useful reading recommendations.

monospacementor.com/devops-know-...

DevOps learning community > The Monospace Mentor The Server Room is a DevOps learning community that focuses on boosting the skills and careers of its members.

Seeking a supportive environment to enhance your #DevOps knowledge? With "The Server Room", I offer an inclusive space for professionals to connect, learn, and grow together. Join us, and take your skills to new heights!

➜ monospacementor.com/devops-learn...

⭐️ Interesting project: steveiliop56/tinyauth
github.com/steveiliop56...

Did you know that the #Ruby on #Rails console has a sandbox mode that will revert (almost) all accidental alterations on exit? It's a great way to access your production application with peace of mind.

`rails console --sandbox`

⭐️ Interesting project: social-web-foundation/jekyll-activitypub
github.com/social-web-f...

Linux shell tip: Make a quick backup copy

`cp originalfile{,.bak}`

This command copies `originalfile` to `originalfile.bak` using brace expansion for the name suffixes "" (nothing) and ".bak".

Are you doing backups of your important files? Yes? Great! And when did you last test if your backup can be restored successfully?

⭐️ Interesting project: abhinavxd/libredesk
github.com/abhinavxd/li...

⭐️ Interesting project: jbyuki/venn.nvim
github.com/jbyuki/venn....

⭐️ Interesting project: silverbulletmd/silverbullet
github.com/silverbullet...

DevOps know-how > The Monospace Mentor Practical DevOps know-how, delivered weekly. Expert commentary on recent issues, learning opportunities and reading recommendations.

My newsletter, "News From the Server Room", comes with a column on a specific topic, updates from my #DevOps membership community, and links to interesting engineering content.

Subscribe for free: monospacementor.com/devops-know-...

DevOps learning community > The Monospace Mentor The Server Room is a DevOps learning community that focuses on boosting the skills and careers of its members.

Elevate your #DevOps skills in "The Server Room" – my community dedicated to fostering growth and collaboration. Join us, engage in discussions, seek advice, and participate in workshops led by industry experts!

➜ monospacementor.com/devops-learn...

DevOps know-how > The Monospace Mentor Practical DevOps know-how, delivered weekly. Expert commentary on recent issues, learning opportunities and reading recommendations.

Is growing your Dev/Ops skills important to you? My no-fluff newsletter has my “Mentor Monologue” column, news from my #DevOps membership community, and a bunch of useful reading recommendations.

monospacementor.com/devops-know-...

DevOps learning community > The Monospace Mentor The Server Room is a DevOps learning community that focuses on boosting the skills and careers of its members.

Ready to join a community of like-minded DevOps enthusiasts? With "The Server Room", there’s a platform for your knowledge-sharing, problem-solving, and professional development. Take the next step in your career!

➜ monospacementor.com/devops-learn...

"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it." - Brian Kernighan

Git tip: Create a `.gitmessage` template file and set it with `git config commit.template ~/.gitmessage`. Consistent commit messages improve team communication and project history. #Git

Homelab tip: Set up Prometheus with node_exporter on all machines. Monitor CPU, memory, disk, and network. Grafana dashboards make trends visible.

Linux tip: Use `systemctl --failed` to quickly identify which services failed to start after boot. Much faster than scrolling through journal logs when troubleshooting system issues. #Linux #SystemAdministration #SysAdmin

Linux tip: Set `HISTCONTROL=ignoredups:erasedups` in your init script to prevent duplicate commands cluttering your history. Clean history makes command recall much more efficient. #Linux #SystemAdministration #SysAdmin

Jochen Lillich / dotfiles · GitLab My collection of configuration files for zsh, tmux, i3 and many other applications.

I’m delighted with my setup of the Niri window manager. It’s quick, gives me unlimited space on each workspace, and I can exercise my #MechanicalKeyboard. If you’re interested how I set up Niri, systemd and Waybar, check out my dotfiles: gitlab.com/geewiz/dotfi...

Git tip: Use `git commit --fixup <hash>` for small fixes, then `git rebase -i --autosquash` to automatically organize them. Keeps commit history clean during development. #Git

Shell tip: `${var%suffix}` removes the shortest matching suffix. `${var%%suffix}` removes the longest. `${var#prefix}` and `${var##prefix}` work the same for prefixes. Mnemonic: # comes before % on the keyboard. #Linux #SystemAdministration #SysAdmin

⭐️ Interesting project: alperdrsnn/clime
github.com/alperdrsnn/c...

Apply the DRY principle carefully - Don't Repeat Yourself, but don't abstract too early. Three instances of similar code might warrant abstraction, but two might just be coincidence. Premature abstraction creates complexity. #SoftwareEngineering #SoftwareDevelopment